Bio

Jeffrey Beemer is a Ph.D candidate in residence in the Department of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His interests include social theory, social history, medical sociology, historical demography, and the sociology of religion and culture. Jeffrey is a senior research associate in the Social and Demographic Research Institute and serves as Graduate Editor for the journal Social Science History.

Education

2010 (expected) Ph.D. University of Massachusetts, Amherst (Sociology)
1998 M.Div. Princeton Theological Seminary (Theological Studies)
1995 B.A. Mankato State University (Philosophy)

Research

Dissertation: Social Meanings of Mortality: The Language of Death and Disease in 19th Century Massachusetts. Jeffrey's dissertation focuses on nineteenth-century institutional and demographic change, with a theoretical focus on changing medical and public health discourse during this period. It investigates changing conceptions of disease and cause-of-death reporting during the late nineteenth-century, North American epidemiological transition. Using both recorded literal causes of death and corresponding International Classification of Diseases codes, Jeffrey analyzes the shifting grammars of death and disease through cause-of-death reporting in Northampton and Holyoke Massachusetts from 1850 to 1912. His research more broadly addresses the intersection of population health, rising inequality, medical professionalization and the emergence of public health regimes. Jeffrey's research has been published in Sociological Theory, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, and Social Science History. Research Associate for Douglas L. Anderton on the Grammars of Death Project, funded through the National Institutes of Health, 2004-pesent.

Teaching

2001-2008            Teaching Associate:
                                Theory and Perspectives
                                Sociology of Education

2002-2006            Invited Lecturer:
                                Graduate Theory Seminar
                                Theory and Perspectives
                                Sociology of Religion

2000-2002            Teaching Assistant:
                                Theory and Perspectives
                                Criminology
                                Contemporary American Society